creepy animatronics dismantling your dead baby's crib and marching bands If you're like me you felt like this after the finale From Cold Harbor Explained the goats and Mark's decision to leave Gemma we have a lot to get into Now this video isn't going to be a boring recap like some of the other breakdowns we'll only be dealing with the biggest questions and theories associated with this episode And as such I've left timestamps below so you can see all the topics we'll be covering Plus I'll be coming out with a massive theory and hidden details video
that will cover the entire season not just the finale So get ready to praise Kier by hitting that like and subscribe button My girlfriend promised me a waffle party if I get over 10,000 likes I don't have a girlfriend The final episode of season 2 is titled Cold Harbor and after a full 10 episodes we finally find out what lies behind this mysterious door and how the work of our macro refiners are connected to it Simply put Cold Harbor isn't just a room but an entirely new consciousness created for Gemma Scout In fact each of
the rooms which correspond to different file names are complete separate consciousnesses which compartmentalize trauma in varying levels of severity This was done to test what Dr Mau calls the barrier The barrier is what holds back the Audi from experiencing the inny's trauma If the trauma is too much it could break this barrier and seep into the Audi's consciousness This is why when Gemma first enters Cold Harbor Dr Mau asks who she is Who are you something that is also asked to new innies Who are you and this room contains the ultimate trauma the death of
a child If the barrier can hold this it can likely hold anything This is why there are so many rooms 25 to be exact They contain increasing levels of trauma to test the strength of this barrier For example the pain of going through a dental cleaning is different than experiencing a plane crash I mean it could just be turbulence but you get what I mean So we can assume the dental cleaning room known as Wellington was completed before the plane room All of this is to achieve Lumen's ultimate goal of ending pain as we know
it As Drummond says "We commit this animal to cure and his eternal war against pain." Theoretically a chip could be implanted into our brains and any form of trauma could be severed from our original person Thus we could live a life free of pain I'm in a glass case of emotion Cooll says the macro refinement numbers are quote a doorway into the mind of Mark's wife Each cluster is a feeling associated with one of Kier's four tempers And these tempers are the building blocks of the mind They include woe frolic dread and malice which are
represented in the painting Kir tames the four tempers as well as the dancers at Dylan's waffle party which we can assume are from the choreography and marrynt department Kir believed that the human soul was composed of a precise ratio of these four tempers and it was this knowledge on how to tame them that he wanted to pass on to his children by taming the tempers he said quote "The world shall become but your appendage." The room itself contains the same crib Mark put together for their unborn child If Gemma can get through the task of
dismantling it while not remembering the trauma of her real life the entire severance project would be deemed a success and thus Mark and Gemma won't be required This is why Coobel says if Cold Harbor is complete both Mark and Gemma are dead I should mention this means the death of their innies and not necessarily their original selves But there are still things we don't know For example how is it Mark is able to feel these clusters of numbers if they're associated with someone other than himself perhaps it's because he's so close to Gemma But that
wouldn't explain why Irv Dylan and Heli are able to work on Gemma's numbers as well Maybe because the new consciousnesses they're creating are somewhat blank allowing other people to work on them as well It's not about creating a new Gemma It's about creating a blank conscience And what about the files we've seen that aren't a part of the 25 files that comprise Gemma's folder these include files like Cello and Chick-fil-A I'm guessing these are failures Files which a refiner was unable to complete or which Gemma's barrier was unable to hold Let's also discuss the winter
coat The same winter coat Gemma wore on the night of her supposed death This is the only outfit she wears that is actually associated with both Gemma and the time period in which she left the Audi world Every other outfit is from the 1960s I think the ' 60s thing could have something to do with Jame Egan who would have grown up during that time We also know that he watches these tests from his own computer but what do you guys think now what about the name Cold Harbor every other file is a reference to
a physical place that's somewhat recognizable in the real world Cold Harbor is not And if it is indeed a location it's likely only found in the Severance universe If that's the case it could be the location where Gemma quote unquote died But it could also be metaphorical like the cold place we go inside ourselves when experiencing moments of tremendous loss If you're like me arguably the most WTF moment of the entire episode was Mark's decision to leave Gemma and run off with Heli It also raises the question where do they think they're going there's no
escape and it'll only be a matter of time before they're apprehended and their innies retired for good The first thing we have to ask ourselves is why Mark made this decision And it's important to note that this is any Mark making this choice not our Audi In fact the first 20 minutes of the episode is basically a back and forth between these two severed portions of Mark's brain as they try to come to an understanding on saving Gemma Audi Mark needs his Iniey's help to do this But if they're successful in saving Gemma it would
lead to the downfall of Lumen and thus end In Mark's existence It would be his death So for his innie the question becomes would you sacrifice yourself for someone who's basically been your captor but it's not just any Mark who stands to lose his life It's every single innie on the severed floor I think the second you get your wife back you forget I ever existed So I totally get why Mark's Inny initially rejects the plan to save Gemma There's nothing in it for him except the promise of reintegration And this promise is most likely
[ __ ] I mentioned reintegration He basically called [ __ ] Well he's not wrong right it's left ambiguous but we can assume Audi Mark would not reintegrate if he got his wife I mean the procedure is extremely dangerous and we've seen what it can do not only to him but also with people like Petey And that's not even getting into the specifics of how a reintegrated person would function As Inie Mark mentions the vast majority of this reintegrated mind's memories would belong to the Audi How do these two severed consciousnesses reconcile when one is
much more vast than the other it's ultimately Coobel who convinces Any Mark to go through with the plan to save Gemma Once Cold Harbor is complete he'll be killed anyway so why not save Gemma which will at least give him the chance of being saved Upon arriving back on the severed floor Mark is greeted to a new painting the exalted victory of Cold Harbor I'll have a whole section devoted to this later in the video Mark and Heli are the only two macro refiners left and Heli is here to bear witness as Mark completes the
file There's also this weird mannequin of Kier Egan If you've seen my episode 9 video you'll know Seanc's connection to a Twilight Zone episode about mannequins becoming real people but this mannequin appears to be animatronic I wonder if it's from the perpetuity wing of Gwendalyn's former office where she said the Egginans were animatronic Ours were animatronic They even did this little choreographed dance So yours just stand there Mark even gets a cute waffle party pop-up card Waffle parties being the highest perk available to MDR employees and awarded to the refiner of the quarter which in
this case looks to be Mark Mark and Heli discuss the pros and cons of completing Cold Harbor with Heli stating that the only way any Mark has a chance at living is if he saves Gemma But Mark doesn't just want to live He wants to live with Hely Yeah but I want to live with you This is impossible as Heli reminds him but I'm her Mark Heli is Helena Egan There's no way he'll ever get to be with her There'll be no honeymoon ending for you and Hel But I actually think there is a way
they can be together and we'll get to that in a bit Heli has this interesting call back to episode 1 where she tells Mark she's been trying to think of another place besides Delaware Been trying to think of other place names besides Delaware This was one of the questions Mark first asked Hely Please name any US state or territory [ __ ] comes to mind I don't know Delaware And the two end up talking about the equator This is an interesting location considering the equator is what separates the northern and southern hemispheres It's a metaphor
for not only the severed brain cutting our consciousness into innie and audi but for the severance floor itself The last thing heli says to Mark before he ventures off to save Gemma is "See you at the equator." And where does she meet him at the end of the episode but on the severed floor the floor that separates the test floor below and the Audi world up top It could also mean the door that separates the outside world from the inside But let's fast forward to that pivotal moment Mark chooses Heli over Gemma Is it an
irrational decision sure But who says anything about love is rational this is a man whose reason to live is Heli And by going through that door even if reintegration was possible he'd never get to be with her By choosing Heli he is choosing to spend the last moments of his existence with someone he loves And I don't know about you guys but I got the feeling he was making this decision on the spot It's not like he had some master plan to escape with Heli this whole time The song that plays at the end is
Nol Harrison's The Windmills of Your Mind which first debuted in the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair It actually won the Oscar for best original song It's a song all about the nature of consciousness While the movie explores themes like forbidden love so you can see why this choice was an ideal fit Mark and Heli run through the hallway and you'll notice the picture shifts from digital to film Similar to the flashbacks we saw in episode 207's Chikai Bardau Remember in Buddhism Chikai Bardau is a term to describe the transitionary period from life to death
Mark and Heli are in such a period literally running to their deaths They have nowhere to go In an interview with the movie podcast cinematographer Jessica Legonier says of the choice to use film but there are parts of it where we wanted a different feeling you know where we were really looking for a different identity and a sense of nostalgia The juxtaposition of digital to film parallels that of the Audi and any world Whereas digital tends to be artificial and mechanical film is organic and physical The decision to end on a freeze frame is reminiscent
of the French new wave The most famous example France Trufo's The 400 Blows In it a young boy spends time with his best friend trying to plan a better life but comes into conflict with the law similar to Mark becoming best friends with Heli talking about their lives and coming into conflict with Lumen The use of a freeze frame also leaves the viewer with a sense of uncertainty ambiguity and concern for the lives of our characters As we transition to the end credits a traditional prison work song Go Down Old Hannah plays Old Hannah was
a nickname for the sun and how its relentless and punishing heat beat down on the prisoners as they work Heli and Mark are much like these prisoners They're waiting for that sun to set The sun here being the oppressive Lumen regime But is this the end of Mark and Heli and how could they possibly get out of this situation i think the answer lies in James' speech to Heli in which he openly states he doesn't love his actual daughter Helena I do not love my daughter It is actually Heli who has the spirit of Kier
within her You and your family created hell and you're going to burn in it There he is In fact Jame admits to siring many children none of them possessing the spirit of Kier If you know where I'm going with this I think Jame will switch Heli and Helena essentially shutting off the Helena part of her brain so that Heli can live in the outside world where he can cultivate the cure within her I'm sure she'll demand any Mark come with her which may give Jane leverage in his control over her This allows the two of
them to have a life together albeit under the thumb of Lumen This means Audi Mark would be shut down too And it creates a really interesting dynamic going into season 3 I have to believe that Gemma will have run out of that stairwell where she'll be picked up by Devon and Miss Coobel So while season 2 was all about Mark saving Gemma season 3 will be about Gemma saving Mark The alternative is some sort of any uprising We've already seen glimpses of this with Dylan and the choreography and marrynt department standing up to Milcheek Although
I think this direction would be too messy And while we're here did you notice that the song choreography and Marrynt plays when they first arrive is here chosen one here the song Cooel sang back in season 1 All of the players use plastic instruments made from 3D printers from Optics and Design These instruments can even be found flowing out of Irv's bereavement mug in the intro titles While Lumen has purposely kept these departments separate from one another they all seem to support each other with the overall goal being the completion of Cold Harbor OD makes
the items for the rooms MDR refineses the numbers for a new consciousness Mamalian's nurturable provide the goats and choreography and marrynt improve morale for the workers And a little off topic but can we also clock how Jame had his own room connected to an elevator is this part of the severance elevator or is this somewhere else entirely since season 1 one of the biggest questions on everyone's minds are what the hell are these frigin goats in the finale gives us a bit more clues about these kids Yeah I didn't know that a baby goat is
called a kid It makes more sense now that the mascot for Coobel's school were the fighting kids And now that we know these animals are used as a sacrifice it adds an extra layer of creepy The first thing we'll learn is that the severance floor hallway has a hidden room It makes me question whether there are other such rooms scattered around the labyrinthine halls As Gemma is herded to Cold Harbor Lauren the head of Mamleon's Nurturable brings a goat to Drummond The name Lauren originates in Scotland and means fox And foxes are known to go
after goats especially kids So this is all very planned out by the writers It's also crazy to have the death of a kid juxtaposed to Gemma literally dismantling the crib of her dead child The goat has come as a quote offering And this particular kid was chosen because it's demonstrated Lumen's nine core principles such as verve and wilds The whole ceremony is akin to a cultish or satanic ritual Goats have commonly been associated with the devil and even Lauren's outfit looks satanic in its looming black This is a ritual that's been done multiple times before
as Lauren will question how many times they'll have to keep doing this You can see that Lauren does not like this senseless killing and it's no doubt part of the reason she'll turn on Drummond But the very fact this has been done multiple times raises many questions How many times has Gemma gone through this process Are there others like Gemma who are also going through this efficacy test remember there is an identical room across from her on the test floor This goat referred to as a beast by Drummond will be attuned to a quote cherished
woman who we can assume is Gemma its spirit will guide her to Kier's door I personally believe that this whole ritual should be taken symbolically and not literally Like I don't believe a ghost goat is going to lead Gemma to a door where Kier is Symbolically this ritual makes a lot more sense For example in certain mythologies goats are seen as psychops or creatures that can move between worlds usually the material and spiritual Perhaps the most famous example is the half-goat god Pan who you may remember associated with Pan's labyrinth Many have drawn a connection
to the maze-like corridors of Lumen to such a labyrinth This could mean that this goat or its spirit is to guide Gemma through these halls to a part of Lumen we haven't yet seen Remember that Pey tried to map Lumen's halls but it's a jumbled mess There are even parts of this map that we haven't yet seen Like what is the coil of doom in some cultures goats were used in ritual sacrifices to symbolize the release of its life force or spirit to a higher power In this case that higher power would be kir The
ritual would act as a bridge between the human consciousness and the divine with the goat being a vessel or medium connecting the two So it's possible this is all part of some attempt to get closer to Kir We'll also see several depictions of this ritual where someone offers up the goat to be sacrificed I interpreted this one as the goat resurrected with the sun blaring behind it like those old Christian paintings suggesting something divine The death altar is also in the shape of a swaddled baby with just enough room for the head to poke out
where it will be killed using a bolt pistol The sides also seem to have writing on them However the quality isn't good enough to make out what it says If you've seen my episode 209 video you'll know I think Jame Egan had sex with a young Misscoel I'll probably do a separate video going into greater detail on this But I also believe that the relationship ended with Cooel getting pregnant I mean she knows all about James' other women being brought to the birthing center Plus Jame himself acknowledges his other children who were quote sired in
the shadows If Cooel had a child I think that child is Mark It would explain how she was always keeping an eye on him and even does motherly things like bake him cookies But there's one line in this episode that really highlights this It's where she says to Mark "I care for you." Something about this line seemed so out of place and knowing how intentional this show is with its dialogue I can't help but think it's another clue that Cooel is Mark's mother and she had to give him up as a teen mom Just when
you thought the paintings in this show couldn't get any better we're treated to this masterpiece titled The Exalted Victory of Cold Harbor It depicts Mark surrounded by various friends and co-workers as he finishes Cold Harbor in what could only be described as an orgasmic state reaching his hand in the air as if receiving some divine favor The location is Wo's Hollow which we saw during our Innies Orpo and we even get a glimpse of the world's tallest waterfall Wo Hollow is where Kier went to drown out the sound of his dying twin brother Deer And
I thought this was pretty cool but Deer Egan is an anagram for AI generated and Winter Tide is an anagram for deer twin At top the falls looming over the others are various members of the Egan family From left to right Ambrose Myrtle Philillip Jame Helena Kier Leonora Baird and Ghart The show is filled with nods to these characters like Pips's Diner is named after Philip Egan and the Leonora apartments are where Irv lives Below the waterfall we'll see clusters of different groups that have brought Mark to this moment In the far back left are
Ricken's friends Patton Denise and Rebec And it took me a while to figure out who this guy is It's Balf the guy who informs Ricken the netty pot is ready Uh Ricken the netty pot is warm In front of them are Mark's MDR replacements from the beginning of season 2 Gwendalyn Daario and Mark W This is followed by members of Optics and Design Elizabeth Felicia and Bert Directly to Mark's right are Pey Coobel Irv Ricken Devon Baby Eleanor Heli and Dylan To Mark's left we have Miss Casey Milchek Miss Hong holding her theramin Natalie and
Mr Grainer We'll also see three members of Mamleian's nurturable Lauren Wyatt and Goatman There are the four innie twins from the Ortho and rounding out the painting the four tempers Wo Dread Malice and Frolic Praise gear we haven't seen the end of Dylan G Although not given the largest story line this episode we do get a bit of a wrap-up regarding his affair with Gretchen Milcheek gives him a letter from his Audi explaining three points Point one you point two Gretchen is perfect And point three Audi Dylan hopes his wife will one day see him
like she sees his innie This whole situation was a wake-up call for Audi Dylan to get his life in order Perhaps now he'll change to become that self- assured badass his innie is So in Dylan has a choice He can choose to stay at Lumen or quit for good And I think that heroic push of the vending machine to block Milch gives us our answer He's here to stay I also like that on his resignation form he only put down his first name because that's all he knows And did anyone else notice that the break
room has been cleared out it's almost as if once Mark is done with Cold Harbor MDR isn't needed anymore and they've already started clearing things out For those wanting a brief explanation of the Gemma escape here's a step-by-step guide where I'll display who's an innie and Audi every step of the way We start with Audi Mark making his way from Blumen's ground floor There he will take the elevator down to the severance floor where he turns into his innie In Mark then makes his way to the export hallway using the directions slipped to him by
Heli By going down the export hallway elevator he turns back into his Audi since he is no longer on the severed floor There he finds Gemma whose brain has been severed 25 times in the cold harbor room This is why she doesn't recognize him when she first meets him This room also doesn't affect Mark's chip so he's still his Audi here When they exit the room Mark is still his Audi but Cold Harbor Gemma turns back into regular Gemma the same Gemma that fell in love with Mark those years ago They have a brief moment
to embrace before rushing back to the elevator As we ascend to the severed floor we get the most awkward switch as our characters kiss turning back into any Mark and Miss Casey Finally there's the stairwell threshold Miss Casey goes through first and upon exiting the other side turns into Gemma Mark however stays behind with Heli With season 2 having come to an end there is some good news As of the time of this writing a season 3 has not been confirmed although it's pretty safe to say it will be considering Severance is Apple's most watched
TV show ever In February of 2025 Ben Stiller confirmed that a writer's room was currently underway in LA And for those of you thinking it'll be another three-year wait it'll likely be far less considering season 2 was affected by both the writer and actor strike Now if you like this video make sure to like and subscribe I will be coming out with more Severance content Thanks for watching Be sure to like and subscribe And for more bad takes you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at ThinkStoryYT Until next time remember I love you
